Epic Portions

Category: Baking

  • Fractured Prune – Donuts-gone-Krazy

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    My girlfriend’s parents live in Rockville, Maryland; you know…that place where Lewis Black woke up in front of a courthouse, married to a woman he’d never met three days after having chugged a bottle of NyQuil [2:25 in the video].

    The Fractured Prune is a random little donut shoppe nestled into the new, massive Rockville TownCenter development…just up the street from the same courthouse!  Although it’s part of a chain in the Northeastern U.S., this place feels seriously local.  I think this comes from the fact that they make your donut on demand.  That’s right – you can order off the ridiculously extensive donut menu or make up your own donut however you see fit.  This time they were running slow (understaffed) and threw in an extra donut for free!  This was the 2nd time this happened!

    Think I’m kidding you?!  You’re wrong.  Behold their speciality donuts – or you can make your own:

    • Banana Nut Bread: banana glaze, cinnamon sugar, peanuts
    • Black Forest: raspberry glaze, coconut, mini chocolate chips
    • Blueberry Hill: blueberry glaze, powder sugar (Find Your Thrill)
    • Carnival: honey glaze, rainbow sprinkles
    • Creamsicle: orange glaze, powdered sugar
    • Chocolate Covered Cherry: cherry glaze, mini chocolate chips
    • French Toast: maple glaze, cinnamon sugar
    • Lemonade: lemon glaze, granulated sugar
    • Morning Buzz: mocha glaze, Oreo® cookie crumbs
    • Myrna Medley: chocolate glaze, chocolate jimmies, peanuts
    • Ms. Prunella: mixed berry glaze, cinnamon sugar
    • O.C. Sand: honey glaze, cinnamon sugar
    • Pebble Beach: honey glaze, cinnamon sugar, mini chocolate chips
    • Peppermint Patty®: mint glaze, mini chocolate chips
    • Plain Jane: a naked donut (don’t peek)
    • Rolo®: caramel glaze, mini chocolate chips
    • Reese Cup®: peanut butter glaze, mini chocolate chips
    • Strawberry Shortcake: strawberry glaze, graham cracker, powdered sugar
    • Sundae: honey glaze, peanuts, mini chocolate chips
    • Trail Mix: banana glaze, nuts, coconut, chocolate jimmies

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    I got the Rolo – Caramel Glaze and mini Chocolate Chips.  Still piping hot out of the fryer, this puppy was gone in about .045234 seconds.  It was good.  Very good.  Like…so good it makes you angry.  Angry that you don’t have another one.

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    To summarize: the Fractured Prune is one of those rare places where I seriously considered locking the doors, jumping across the counter, strong arming the staff, and gorging myself on endless donuts until the police found me in a sugar-induced coma next to the fryer.  Instead, the savvy workers anticipated the inevitable ‘twinkie-defense’ and just gave me a free donut for not getting too physical on the premises.  Hats off.

    Rockville Town Square
    39-A Maryland Ave.
    Rockville, MD 20850
    301-738-2424
    http://www.fracturedprune.com/

  • Smorecakes

    Remember Baconsmores?
    Yeah, I thought so.  Well, turns out, not everyone eats bacon.  (Seriously!)  So, I had to make something for the vegetarians in my group in enjoy, and, well, I love a theme.  Smorecakes it was!  These were tiny, delicious little graham-cracker cupcakes topped with homemade marshmallow and a gob of chocolate frosting plopped on top.  Not the star of the evening, sure, but a tasty treat!

    Smorecakes

    Smorecakes
    1/2 cup butter
    1 cup sugar
    3 egg yolks
    1 tspn vanilla
    2 cups graham cracker crumbs
    2 tspm baking powder
    3/4 tspn salt
    1 cup heavy cream
    3 egg whites (room temp)

    First, you need to turn your graham crackers into graham crumbs.  My preferred method is to place the crackers in a freezer bag, zip it up, and beat the living daylights out of them with a rolling pin.  If that’s not your style, though, I hear that a minichopper or a food processor would also work.

    Then: In a large bowl, cream together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks and the vanilla. In a separate prep bowl, combine the graham crumbs, baking powder and salt. Slowly beat the dry mix into the eggysugar mix. In a different bowl, beat your room temperature egg whites into stiff peaks. Once they are peaky, fold them evenly into the other mixture, and pour into prepared (greased, lined, whatever your fancy) cupcake tins.  Bake 20 to 30 min at 375F.

    Cool on a wire rack until you can get them out of the pan, then continue to cool until they will not melt your marshmallow too much when you dob it on top, but not so cool that they are cold.  These are really, really yummy still slightly warm.

    For the topping: make marshmallow.

    Dob liberal and delicious amounts of marshmallow on top of each cupcake.  Top with another dollop of chocolate frosting:
    2 3/4 cup powder sugar
    6 tblspn unsweetened cocoa
    6 tblspn butter
    5 tblspn tinned evaporate milk
    1 tspn vanilla

    Sift together cocoa and sugar. In a separate bowl, cream butter until smooth. Beat in sugarcocoa and evaporated milk; add vanilla and beat until fluffy.

    Voila – bacon-free (and, you know, sometimes that’s OK,) and delicious!

  • Fancy Schmancy Carrot Cake with Mango-Cream Cheese Icing

    I must apologize for leaving you so long without a baking post, oh Epic Portions readers.  I know you need your sugar fix, but homework has been getting me down, the weather has been getting me outside, and rock shows galore have been getting me dancing… leaving little time for baking and even less for blogging.  I have been baking though, oh yes!  Expect three posts from me before the weekend is out – the first being this super awesome Fancy Schmancy Carrot Cake with Mango-Cream Cheese Icing!

    This is NOT your average carrot cake. Carrot cake? Yeah, I know – boring. Bland. Kind of weird, actually.  But this?  This is a moist, spicy, flavorful, fruit-filled concoction which you can add just about anything to and it only improves it. Seriously! Experiment with it. You will not be disappointed. Plus, you can make just about any kind of cream cheese icing to suit your flavor-and-color preferences, making it both beautiful and versatile. I chose mango because I made this cake on Easter and mangoes feel spring-like to me, but really: anything goes. Give it a try.

    (Note: this has a long ingredient list and if you don’t bake often it can be a pricey recipe, but if you do bake often you will probably have a lot of things on hand… and either way it is totally worth it. And, despite the long list, it’s a pretty easy recipe to actually make.)

    Fancy Schmancy Carrot Cake
    Makes a three-layer 8″ round cake. Or whatever comparable size you want to make.
    2.5 cups all-purpose flour
    2 tspn baking soda
    1 tsp baking powder
    5 tspn cinnamon (or to taste)
    3 tspn nutmeg (or to taste)
    3 tspn salt (or to taste)
    5 tspn ground ginger (or to taste)
    4 tspn ground cloves (you getting the idea here, yet?)
    4 eggs
    2 sticks (16 tblspn total) butter – SOFT
    3/4 cup white sugar
    3/4 cup light brown sugar
    5 oz crushed pineapple in juice
    5 oz mango – chopped, pureed, in really small pieces somehow
    2 tblspn vanilla
    4 cups shredded carrots
    4 to 5 oz copped nuts – I prefer hazelnuts, but walnuts are nice too
    3/4 dried cranberries, with liquor liquid of preference to macerate
    1/2 cup crystallized ginger, really finely chopped

    Let me start by saying: the mini chopper is your friend. Carrots? Chopped! Mango? Chopped! Seriously, I put almost everything in this recipe in there and it makes it so easy and so good. For this recipe to really work, it’s best to have everything in an even and fine consistency, and the mini chopper is your best answer. I skipped the OXO and got an electric one, and I have never looked back.

    Also, let me say: to bake effectively with dried cranberries, you need to macerate (er, soak) them for at least 4 hours, and 12 hours is really better. I prefer to soak cranberries in spiced rum, but this time I ran out of rum so I added dry red wine, and that was nice too.  It doesn’t, by any means, need to be liquor.  Just find something liquid and tasty, and give your cranberries a good long soak in an air-tight container before you bake ’em. Just make sure you drain them before adding to the recipe – you do NOT want to add your macerating liquid.  I recommend a sieve.

    Now.  In a small bowl, combine your flour, baking soda, baking powder, and spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, salt, cloves and whatever else you feel like.  In a separate, large bowl beat the eggs, butter and sugars until combined and soft.  Add the pineapple (with juice), mango, and vanilla.  Add the dry flourspice mix and beat on low to blend.  Add the carrots, and beat to combine.  Add the walnuts, cranberries, and crystallized ginger, and combine.  Pour into three well-greased 8″ round cake pans, and bake all three for 30-45 minutes at 350F.  The length of time to bake will depend on how much liquid you’ve added in the form of fruit and such; really juicy mango will take longer, for instance. Depend on the age-old toothpick trick and know that moist is better than burnt, and you’ll be fine.  Cool on a wire rack until room temp, remove from the pans, and refrigerate the cakes for an hour or so to get them assembly-ready.

    Mango Cream Cheese Frosting
    16 oz SOFT cream cheese
    10 tblspn SOFT butter
    4 tspn vanilla
    2 cups (ish) powder sugar
    Mango puree to taste and texture (I buy frozen mango, thaw, and mini-chop.)

    Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until combined.  Gradually add sugar and mango until you reach a consistency, sweetness, and mango-ness that you enjoy.

    Assembly: Place bottom cake layer on a serving plate, and coat top with icing. Add second layer and coat top with icing. Add third layer, and generously coat top and sides with icing.  Smooth to make it pretty.  I finish mine off with edible ball bearings, because they are colorful and fun and add a little extra crunch, which I really like.

    Voila!  This has been the attendees’ second-favorite thing I’ve made, just after the Lumpy Bumpy cake. It’s a huge hit.  Enjoy!